Poll: Do You Like Green Bell Peppers?

Do You Like Green Bell Peppers?

In an article last week, the New York Timestakes a good look at green peppers and why they've fallen out of favor compared to other bell varieties. Though its opponents often describe the pepper as overly aggressive, vegetal, and bitter, it has its longtime fans, too, who believe the green ones have a grassy, versatile taste.

I've never liked the smell of green peppers, which seemed to be Mom's favorite kind of pepper when I was a kid (it took me a long time to realize that I was good with most of the rest of the bell pepper family). Mom always told me I was crazy, that they didn't smell bad, and then I read a description in a book that was precisely what I thought: Green peppers smell headache-y.

I seem to be on the other side of the spectrum than everyone else. I love them raw. The snap as you bite in to them and the wonderful flavor, but I dislike them cooked, and won't eat foods with them in it. Like Philly cheesesteaks (though i have found a place where i can get one without the pepper), supreme pizza, a lot of breakfast burritos, etc... I also usually find the other colored peppers too sweet for my taste.

I like these raw as a snack and I also use them in salads or stir fries. I also love love making stuffed peppers. My grandmother made them all the time and they were delish. I wished my husband liked them :(

The bell peppers are all the same species C. annuum and are only different colored because of
A. genetics
B. ripeness
A lot of the green peppers in the store are not ripe yet. They're just picked earlier so you can just buy them for less and let them ripen yourself if you're concerned about cost. They may turn red/orange/yellow/brown as they mature, or not. Bell peppers can also be genetically green. As this is a recessive trait, two green bell peppers will always produce green offspring, also making them cheaper to grow because the outcome is known and there's no worry of any of them taking on the unattractive (to consumers) brown color that some bell peppers have. No matter what color they are they are all going to taste the same when they're ripe so I laugh when I see people buying the colorful non-green peppers for a lot more money.